We are delighted to welcome Greg Kelsall who has recently joined the IFRF team as Deputy Director, assisting Philip Sharman with the day-to-day running of the organisation, looking into ways to encourage collaborative research between members, as well as contributing articles to the Monday Night Mail and IFRF website blogposts.

We asked Greg to tell us a bit about himself and his background…  Here’s what he said:

“With over 30-years’ experience in the energy industry, I have specialist knowledge in clean energy systems.  An independent energy consultant, my activities include:

• Principal Associate to the IEA Clean Coal Centre, writing reports on ‘CCUS barriers and potential’ and ‘Hydrogen production from coal’
• Visiting Professor in Low Carbon Energy Systems at the University of Sheffield funded through the Royal Academy of Engineering
• Chairman of the Institute of Chemical Engineers Clean Energy Special Interest Group and a member of their Risk and Audit committee, advising IChemE Council on issues such as risk management policy, risk register, IT strategy and external audit results
• Monitoring Officer for the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund- Industrial Decarbonisation Phase 1 Deployment programme, where six project teams worked up preliminary plans to become the world’s first fully decarbonised industrial cluster by 2040.

My previous industrial experience was primarily with the power equipment companies of General Electric and Alstom where I worked on a wide range of technology programmes including fuel flexible gas turbines to burn syngas and hydrogen, carbon capture systems, stationary power fuel cells and renewable power generation.  Prior to this, I worked with the UK’s former state owned British Coal at their Coal Research Establishment on technologies including PFBC and IGCC.

A graduate of the University of Leeds, I have a masters degree in Chemical Engineering and am the son of an underground colliery fitter.  So overall, I believe I have a firm grounding in the more traditional topic areas of the IFRF, but with the skill-set and knowledge to encompass the exciting new areas of alternative fuels such as hydrogen, waste and biomass, together with fuel conversion technologies such as fuel cells.

I look forward to working with you all over the coming months and you can find more on background at linkedin.com/in/greg-kelsall/”.

I’m sure you will agree that Greg will make a great addition to the team!